Seedlings

So I finally got around to planting my seeds up, indoors.

I used modular seed trays for some, toilet tubes for the sweet peas, and some small 6cm pots for odds and sods. There is a mixture of fruit and veg and annuals and perennials. For the compost I mixed vermiculite in with my regular garden compost and gave it a good crushing so it was a fine mix.

This was my set up………….

And this is the finished result……….

The mini plug Begonias in the green tray need to be potted on and popped in the greenhouse – when it stops snowing. Fingers crossed this little lot germinate ok 🙂

Anticipation

Spring is nearly here, it will soon be time to sow seeds, propagate and plan where to put everything this year. My T&M orders have started arriving, azaleas and dahlias, plant food and climbing frames for sweet peas, its getting exciting. I have made some indoor space for the seed trays …

I intend to get a long shallow tray to allow me to water all the odd little pots and trays I have accumulated. I found buying purpose built propagators was too expensive so I’ll be using a few of them but mainly yoghurt pots, water cups and toilet tubes!

I have counted up all the pots I need to buy for the garden, to accommodate all the new plants and intend to search second hand and charity shops for alternative planting solutions. Something quirky and a bit different will do nicely.

Roll on warmer weather!

 

Not a lot of gardening going on …

At the moment –

Normal service will resume, as soon as my T&M orders start arriving and this snow buggers off 🙂

 

Been a while

Hello there! So its been a long time since I was last here. It wasn’t an intentional break, things got busy and the garden was taking care of itself. But I would like to get back on track, with the 2nd year of my little garden. And what a great start to the year it is. I won a Thompson and Morgan competition by taking a photo of a poppy and winning the best flower portrait category. I won £250 worth of vouchers! To say I was chuffed is an under statement!

So this weekend I planned how to spend the vouchers and sent my massive order off!

 

I have mainly ordered shrubs and perennials, flowers that will last, an investment hopefully. I am short on space so many more pots and planting ideas will need to organised to make the most of the space. But I am looking forward to the challenge 🙂 I endeavour to keep you all posted.

So a very Happy New Year everyone, and good luck with your gardens 🙂

 

Flower Updates

Some of you may remember back in March I mentioned this pack of wild flower meadow seeds I was going to try out in a thin border………….Well its doing great now….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can see poppies and thistles and daisies and all sorts of lovely wild goodies just about to bloom. Its really filled the border nicely and I hope it will fill the garden with insects and butterflies when in full flower.

I have no idea what this flower is but its totally gorgeous and loves this spot in the shade against the fence.

I have been really impressed with it and will definitely be buying the same again next year to fill this shady dry border.

However, I may just add a few Himalayan Poppies for some more height up the fence, and a couple of ferns in the very far corner to bulk that area up a bit.

 

 

 

 

As for what else is happening in the garden, my very Lovely Mum in Law to be gave me some succulents the other day which I have potted up and surrounded with slate shards, they are kept in the greenhouse for the moment so they don’t get waterlogged.

And after a wander around the garden I found some plants coming up from last year, which were already in place when we got the house, looking rather lovely.

I find it so interesting watching things grow, and seeing how they will spread and fill out their allotted spaces. I just need some sun so I can photograph it all properly 🙂

Summer catch up

Sorry I haven’t been around for a while, been busy busy busy! Thought I would share some pics of how my ‘summer garden’ is looking now. I apologise for the weeds its been very windy and wet of late and getting into the garden to dead head and weed has been a bit difficult 🙂

As you can see my pots and hanging baskets are all in flower and seem to be doing well despite being flattened several times due to wind and rain. The small border I have planted up with the rose bushes is happily flowering and the fuchsia plants I got as plugs are getting bigger by the day!

The sweet peas I grew from seed are travelling speedily up their obelisk  and my 12 strawberry plants – which aren’t supposed to fruit first year, are full of flowers. I have lettuce and radishes coming out of my ears, and carrots on the way. The tomatoes are flowering and thriving in their pots, that just leaves the cucumbers 😦 these I am afraid have died, all 3 of them.  I think they got too damp. The sweet peppers are doing grand though so all is not lost. I know its too late but I have thrown some cucumber seeds in to see if anything comes of them in time for summer salads.

I am happy with the amount of colour in the garden at the moment, If we remind ourselves what it looked like last year……

……….its come a long way 🙂

My plan now is to concentrate on getting perennials in there and hardy ones at that. I have a few, but when the pots are released from their summer duties I intend to fill them with plants that will come back each year and try to get the garden blooming all year round.

I will soon place my order for winter pansies to fill the front garden with colour over winter, and will maybe attempt some winter hanging baskets……… we shall see 🙂

 

 

Planting out – Finally!

Yay, the sun came out, and I got planting This is what I got up to …………

Tomatoes and cucumbers are doing well. I planted out some planters with various flowers grown from seed and plugs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got the small red ceramic planter from Knebworth House Garden show, and the 3 tier planter from Thompson and Morgan with Tesco vouchers 🙂

I planted up some fence pots which came with the house, with a trailing Lobelia and a bushy one, hopefully they will spill over and add some colour to the fence.

 

 

 

 

I also planted out the thin border around the roses with bright Marigolds to add some colour that side. The sun hits the fence most of the day so it sets off the orange and yellows perfectly

 

 

 

 

4 big pots with various summer bedding and some Buddleia plants. Above them along the fence are 4 hanging baskets with more trailing Lobelias and annuals. I will take better photos once its stopped raining!

 

 

 

This is what the back of the house looked like when I had finished. I still have some trays of bedding to plant out, but you can see how the strawberries and salad are doing well. The radish are nearly ready to pick and my sweet peas are really climbing now. I can’t wait for the summer sun to warm the buds and encourage everything to flower 🙂 More photos to come.

Summer Planting Plan

I am sorely tempted to get planting this weekend, I am sure the frost risk is over(?). I have a lot of annual bedding to plant up and I am running out of space to store it. I may leave it one more week at the most, to air on the side of caution………or I may cave and plant some of it out this weekend.

I did a tally up of what I have got in the greenhouse that is ready to go. Its a long list –

40 trailing Lobelia

40 Stock

40 Begonia

30 Petunia

30 Impatiens

lots of Asters bundled into 20 pots

6 Mirabilis

12 Ballerina Pansies

17 Snap Dragons

60 marigolds

30 Gazanias

and a mixture of some Geraniums and bushy Lobelias and 2 or 3 perennial plants to pot up.

So here is a rough sketchy plan for all the pots, baskets and planters I have, and a rough layout of what plants I will put in each. This was mainly to make sure I have enough variety in each planter to ensure I don’t get over excited and over plant a pot and leave nothing for others!

 

I shall also try to catch you up with what veg and salad I am growing, I have currently got cucumbers, sweet peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, radish and carrots on the go. Photos to come 🙂

Bonsai

I have always wanted one and now I have one thanks to my Timmy.

Bernard is a 4 year old Elm bonsai tree and this, so far, is what I know about him:

I know he will be hard to look after- feed him once a month, water him every couple of days making sure the roots don’t dry out, but not over watering him, and allowing the water to drain freely. I know I have to trim him and make sure he doesn’t become pot bound after a year or so.I have to spray his leaves occasionally with a fine water spray, make sure I keep him in some light, but not full sunshine, and not near a heat source………. anything else I need to know?

Here he is…….

And  in  situ…….with smurfs…….

Here is hoping I don’t kill him off too soon.

P.S sorry about the bad camera phone pics, I have no excuses. There will be better photos to come soon 🙂

Planting up miniplants

What a lovely sunny weekend it was! I took advantage of the sunshine and got into the garden, there was a lot to do. Tim offered to do the worst job, digging over a very hard weedy border for me, to prepare it for pots – this is the border I mentioned which is so full of tree roots nothing will grow there apart from bulbs, so I am planting up pots to fill the space. I took some sheers to the lawn edges and placed a slate shingle path for the space in front of the gate, which will get walked on a lot. Makes it look nicer than a weedy/grassy /muddy mess.

My bulk orders of plugs and veg have started arriving. I planted up 2 pots of tumbling tomatoes and 160 bedding annuals!

As you can see I now have a full greenhouse. In here we have, petunias, trailing lobelia, begonias and busy lizzies, mainly.  These will fill up my pots along with the gazanias and snap dragons and various plants grown from seed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also in the post this weekend were 20 packets of seed from the Mirror newspaper deal from a few months back. Its now too late for me to use them, but it will be a great start to next year.

click photo to enlarge

All I am waiting to arrive now are sweet peppers, strawberries and cucumbers. I cant wait for them all to arrive so I can have my full flock of babies to rear for the summer 🙂